If the Lakers let Kwame's contract expire...............

[kno]

... not to mention the guy is a defensive black hole who will only stunt the growth of the young bigs Lakers already have with his horrible work ethic.

Its a lose-lose situation.

[-G-]

How do you not trade Kwame for Curry. Of course I would do it. 19 points and 7 boards last year. These Laker fans think Kwame is good who say no, they are not accurate.

Look at the Knicks. This is why they suck. "Hey, let's get a bunch of guys who put up good numbers". Marbury, Crawford, Curry, Francis, Q, Randolph...how's that working out?

[Tommy Trojan]

Just to defend Star on this one,

If we trade Kwame for Curry we can have Curry play limited minutes just like Kwame. If we give Kwame those minutes why not give it to Curry and have more production out of those minutes?

[dockingsched]

eddy curry doesn't produce more than kwame. eddy curry can score, thats it. ever heard of the eddy curry stat? he commits more turnovers than assists, steals, and blocks combined. heck, kwame can even keep his head up when comparing rebounds. eddy curry sucks.

[semi-sentient]

So Isiah Thomas does post on RealGM...

[LLcoleJ]

Just to defend Star on this one,

If we trade Kwame for Curry we can have Curry play limited minutes just like Kwame. If we give Kwame those minutes why not give it to Curry and have more production out of those minutes?

1) you want to pay a guy 10 million a year for 4 years for back up minutes?
2) he is a terrible and I mean terrible defender.
3) He is a lowsy rebounder ( yes Kwame is better) in fact he is 90th in the league. ( and those are starter minute rebounds)
4) he has a bad attitude and poor work ethic


So, trading away an already overpaid player who actually can give us help this year ( if there are no Good trades to be had) to get what is listed above doesnt compute.

I would prefer to let Kwame walk then take on a player like that.

[ak777]

Just to defend Star on this one,

If we trade Kwame for Curry we can have Curry play limited minutes just like Kwame. If we give Kwame those minutes why not give it to Curry and have more production out of those minutes?

nice joke....we need a big who can defend and not score...

this guy eats donuts when he is on bench....and the most terrible thing is his contract is not insured ...just like Q...so stay away from these 2 players

[mmyers37]

I wouldn't particularly want Curry or Kwame for the amount of money we are discussing here, but I don't see we can say that Kwame is better than Curry. Can you imagine Kwame starting for the Knicks???

I wouldn't be surprised if Curry would benefit from a change of environment. Getting booed mercilessly and being in a chaotic situation like theirs can't be very inspiring. Stick Kwame in that situation and see how good his defense is then. "On top of spaghetti...."

Kwame doesn't belong in the NBA at all. He will not be back next year. Not even for $1 Mil a year.

[semi-sentient]

How do you not trade Kwame for Curry. Of course I would do it. 19 points and 7 boards last year. These Laker fans think Kwame is good who say no, they are not accurate.

Terrible post.

[Teen Girl Squad]

Star just look at how much better the Knicks are with 24/10 added to their lineup for scrubs to see how deceiving stats can be.

[islander009]

star24 wrote:
How do you not trade Kwame for Curry. Of course I would do it. 19 points and 7 boards last year. These Laker fans think Kwame is good who say no, they are not accurate.

For offensive purposes Curry will win the comparison but that is not what we need. We need defense, and Curry has NONE. Not one bit, whatsoever. Curry cannot play back up minutes at all. If you want the production that he provides the knicks then he has to start. There just isnt room for him to start. He requires more touches than Kobe, and more touches than a prostitute can provide, to get his 19/7. As much as i do not like kwame at all, because he has no hands to catch a ball or any offensive game, he does play defense. Which as someone as stated earlier will help us in the playoffs. We are already struggling with defense, why trade away someone that helps anchor our middle, for someone that destroys the middle. As far as collins, he may be more athletic of a defender, but hes not the hard nosed defender that PJ wants. Phil is somewhat content with Kwame because kwame isnt going to be a push over, he does hold his ground...somewhat. I dont agree with the price but at the end of the year and we let him expire why not see if there are others say kurt thomas available with the MLE if not pick up kwame at UNDER mle.

[semi-sentient]

For offensive purposes Curry will win the comparison but that is not what we need. We need defense, and Curry has NONE.

That, and veteran leadership/experience.

[milesfides]

If we are close to contending, I doubt the Lakers FO will be so cavalier about letting Kwame's contract expire. He's still the best individual defender in the post on our team. He's had big games in the playoffs as well.

Sure, we can try to sign a FA replacement, but who? We're not going to have cap space anyways, so finding a MLE replacement as good as or better than Kwame IN HIS DEFENSIVE ROLE will be difficult.

Extending him to a reduced contract makes the most sense. Hopefully his agent has paid attention to the Varejao situation this year.

Most of all, Kwame just looks comfortable in LA. He's underachieving for what he's getting paid, so in terms of fair value, MLE seems reasonable, despite his contract almost being halved. From the Lakers POV, I believe around $5m is just about the limit they can offer Kwame before hitting the luxury tax.

Somebody is probably going to have to be traded to clear salary cap space for Bynum's extension in a year, but there are more expendable Lakers than Kwame.

[semi-sentient]

^^^ Pretty much agree. Kwame shouldn't have any problem accepting MLE-type money.

The only way I think we can realistically bring in the PF that we're in need of is to send Odom packing for JO. That solidifies our defense and gives us a much better 2nd option. I'm not sure what else would need to be included to get it done though, if it's even possible to begin with. The best we can hope for (with what we have) is that Bynum has improves again next season and turns into a big time post defender who has a few more moves in his arsenal. If not that, then we'll need to get better at the PF slot.

If we do neither of those, my opinion is that we don't have a shot at beating San Antonio or Boston, which are the two teams that give us the biggest problem, primarily because the stomp us in the PF department, while still having solid C's that can get the job done defensively. If we had JO playing next to Bynum and Kobe, we'd be contenders without question, and I'd love our chances against ANYONE.

[The Laker Kid]

How do you not trade Kwame for Curry. Of course I would do it. 19 points and 7 boards last year. These Laker fans think Kwame is good who say no, they are not accurate.

Eddy Curry will NOT accept a non-starting position. Here's a quote from him:

"It definitely bugs me," he said. "I think I'm a starter in this league, but I guess not on this team."

Full Story Here

He WILL NOT co-exist with Andrew Bynum. Either you start Eddy Curry and bench Andrew or you start Andrew and piss Eddy Curry.

[Tommy Trojan]

The question is will any GM be stupid enough to offer Kwame more then the MLE? I think as long as we have Isaiah as a GM you never know what can happen.